Is this thing on?

I like the idea of referer.org (test), but, it doesn't work for me, not even when I link to myself.

Gays/Christians pt VII

Ran across an old interview by Frontline with the Rev. Jerry Falwell: link #1. Obviously I don't agree with much of what he says, but, I do understand how orthodox Protestantism is supposed to work. Knowing how it is supposed to operate, I'd have to say that Falwell gets it right on the money.

If orthodox Protestantism is truly going to try to help practicing homosexuals come back to a life of chastity, then the church has to do a better job of allowing non-married people to be of service. Too often, single people are second-class citizens in church.

Less Than Jake and Wilhelm Scream, HOB Anaheim

We caught Less Than Jake and Wilhelm Scream at the House of Blues in Anaheim last Monday.

I brought two newbies: one complete punk newbie (Dr Ron) and a guy that has seen a lot of alt.rock shows but maybe nothing as serious as these shows. For Wilhelm Scream, we pushed into the crowd in front of the stage, at the back side of the pit.

It truly was a kind crowd: everyone down in the pit knew what they were doing and were having a good time. Hardly any fights. Everyone that fell was picked up quickly. It was the way it was supposed to be.

Less Than Jake were on fire. The blasted through a set dominated by older tunes, plus played one song ("Overated") off of the upcoming CD. To push through a bunch of their back-catalog, they often would play just one verse and one chorus of a tune, like they did for "Dopeman". "Johnny Quest" didn't get played, which sucks.

In the past I've tried to describe why punk is great, and what the pit means. Why do guys like to run into one another, and push one another in some good-natured mock fight? It just makes sense to me. We are there, connected, unified. We are not alone.

Whatever. A good show. A good night.

///

Via the magic of Technorati.com, here are other people that saw the same show: checkersnpink, atticus13 (oops, he saw same bands play at a different HOB)

ER

Tonight was my second time inside the ER of Saint Jude Hospital.

For a couple of days, my heart would seem to skip a beat every few minutes. No pain, no dizziness, just a bit of bad rythmn. I'm recovering from the FLU OF DEATH, so I figured they were related.

In an un-dramatic scenario, I drove myself to the ER, and waited around for three hours for someone to see me. The nurse took a few seconds of EKG, but, since I only the bad beats once every few minutes, the EKG didn't catch it. They eventually sent me home with an appointment to borrow a portable heart monitor, which I'm supposed to wear for 24 hours.

It was strange to be on a bed in an ER, watching people add and erase names from a white board, just like on television. My name in black dry-erase marker in Room "H1". H1 must have stood for "bed in hallway #1", since I wasn't actually in a room, per se.

Cartoons

By now, many Americans will have heard about the Islamic protests against cartoons that appeared in a Danish paper that depicted Mohammed. There were 12 cartoons, and two were mildly political, much like our standard political cartoons you'd find on the opinion page of the paper.

The Islamic world freaked, of course. Islam forbids pictorial depictions of all people and animals, and especially forbids pictures of the "Prophet". There are huge protests and riots. Danish embassies have been torched. People have died. Groups in Palestine have announced that the lives of all Danes in Palestine are at risk.

Everyone seems to have one of four opinions. One, that it was blasphemy and is thus plain wrong. Two, that the paper that published the cartoons did nothing wrong. Three, that, while freedom of the press is important, it was in bad taste or insensitive. Four, that the cartoons are an internal Danish matter.

My two cents is this.

I openly reject Islam.
I reject the perfection of the Prophet. I reject the teaching of the Quran.
I do so of my own free will.

Since I am not a Muslim, I also reject Sharia-based laws.

Since I am not beholden to Sharia, I find no fault in the publishing of the cartoons.

I know that my view is insensitive, biased, blasphemous, and apostate. However, in a multicultural democracy, one needs to be thick-skinned, to expect to have one's beliefs challenged and questioned.

I am ready to fight words with words.

If Islamists are always going to escalate, fight words with physical violence, then they are not prepared to live in a multicultural democracy.

Those that use violence to silence words are rarely noble.